Guild Wars 2: Once Bitten, Twice Shy
When Guild Wars 2 launched in the summer of 2012, I was very enthusiastic about the game on the Contains Moderate Peril podcast. I had participated in the beta and was impressed by many of the game's mechanics and its overall accessibility. Although I did not expect the game to be the focal point of my gaming activities, I (and many others I suspect) felt that this casual MMO had a lot to offer and would become a firm favourite. And that was pretty much the case up until 2015 when the first expansion, Heat of Thorns, was released. I have written in the past about how this new content changed the nature of Guild Wars 2 and contradicted its existing laissez-faire approach to solo game play. I didn’t want content gated behind skills I didn’t enjoy earning, Nor did I want my access to zones subject to player unlocks and thus making my gaming activities dependent on others. Hence I parted company with the MMO and have not returned.
Since then, there has been a second expansion, Path of Fire, which added mounts to the game as well as new content. I believe that this expansion was more equitable than the previous and friends and colleagues have assured me that I can return to the game and bypass the material I didn’t previously like. However, this still did not prove sufficient to tempt me back to the game in 2017 as I felt that Guild Wars 2 was simply one of those games that just wasn’t applicable to me any longer. All too often when I return to an MMO that I have previously left, I enjoy a few hours of excitement mainly due to all the things that have been added to the game in my absence. Then after a while, I find that all the things I didn’t like are still there, or that there is a massive progression gap to be overcome before I can join my friends at the endgame. I believe we as gamers, have an inherent blind spot where we substitute the reality of a situation with what we would “like” a game to be.
There is now a third expansion for Guild Wars 2 on the horizon. Provocatively called End of Dragons. Despite my past experience and the fact that the MMO genre has evolved greatly since the launch of this game, I have a worrying urge to re-install the game and see what is “going on”. The rational part of my mind predicts that I’ll spend an evening downloading the game client, log in to my primary character in Divinity’s Reach and then spend some time riding around on my flying carpet. I’ll quickly establish that the game is not really that different than before and then promptly log out. I did exactly the same with The Secret World: Legends, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Neverwinter. But the irrational part of my mind is adamant that I’m missing out on “the best MMO around” and that “it’s way better than last time” and I really do need to check things out. I’m curious to see which point of view wins, although common sense urges that it should be the former.
